Canada could provide alternative power sources

Gov. Donald L. Carcieri hopes to sign contracts with large alternative-energy projects planned in Canada, as part of work to stabilize electricity prices in Rhode Island and help reduce the state’s reliance on carbon-based energy.
Carcieri has been working for two years with the leaders of other states in the Northeast and Canada’s Eastern provinces to find solutions to energy challenges across the North Atlantic Seaboard.
In particular, energy officials sitting on a power planning committee of the Conference of New England Governors and Eastern Canadian Premiers has discussed at length the possibility of supplying power to New England from a handful of large wind- and hydro-power projects being planned in several Canadian provinces, said Andrew Dzykewicz, director of the R.I. Office of Energy Resources and Carcieri’s chief energy adviser.
“They’re just building so much of this stuff and they’re doing it so fast that it would be a shame not to take advantage of it in some fashion,” Dzykewicz said.
Last June, Carcieri signed a memorandum of understanding with Danny Williams, premier of the eastern Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador, regarding the sale of power from a massive hydroelectric project proposed in Labrador.
Under the memorandum, Rhode Island and the Canadian province agreed to further explore Rhode Island’s purchase of 200 megawatts of electricity annually from the proposed Lower Churchill hydroelectric project, which if built would be a 2,800-megawatt hydro plant reportedly capable of powering 1.5 million homes.
If built, the Lower Churchill project would generate electricity on a large river, just downstream from an existing 5,600-megawatt power station, Dzykewicz. Combined, the two plants would have about 8,000 megawatts of power that could be made available on the open market, he said.
“That’s the equivalent of about eight Seabrook nuclear stations, and it would be nice to get some of that,” he said, referring to the nuclear plant in southern New Hampshire.
Electricity purchased from those projects would not help meet the mandate of the state’s 2004 Renewable Energy Portfolio Standard to produce 16 percent of Rhode Island’s energy needs through renewable sources, Dzykewicz said, because the standard does not qualify large hydropower projects as renewable energy sources.
Lawmakers who approved the standard heeded concerns of some environmentalists about the impact on wildlife and local ecosystems posed by large hydropower projects. But Dzykewicz said the power generated by such projects is considered clean energy to the extent that it is does not require burning of fossil fuels.
“If we did the 16 percent that’s statutorily mandated, or the 20 percent the governor is looking for, plus we did another 20 percent from the Canadian sources, we’re looking at 40 percent non-polluting power for the state of Rhode Island,” Dzykewicz said. “That’s a pretty good thing.”
Even if the Lower Churchill power station is built, however, it is unclear whether electricity generated by the plant would be available to Rhode Island. New England, New York and other Canadian regions are all being considered as primary markets for the power, and expensive transmission upgrades would be needed to carry electricity to any of those destinations, Dzykewicz said.
A state power authority the governor has proposed could facilitate contracts to buy any electricity from Canadian suppliers, Dzykewicz said. It might not be possible for the state to buy power from Canadian sources without such an agency, he added.
A bill being considered at the Statehouse that would enable National Grid to enter into long-term contracts with renewable-energy suppliers would not require the state’s dominant utility to do business with the Canadian suppliers, Dzykewicz said.
“The power authority would be an entity that would be able to do that kind of contracting,” he said.
A power authority could co-exist with the National Grid long-term contract proposal and any other measures designed to promote renewables, Dzykewicz said.
Under Carcieri’s energy plan, the governor has also stated a goal of working with other Northeast states and Canadian provinces to create new supplies of liquefied natural gas for the region.
Two LNG facilities are being built in Canada that will satisfy not only Canada’s native demand, but can provide badly needed additional gas supply to the rest of the Northeast, according to the governor’s five-point energy plan. &#8226